"When I was chancellor of the New York City schools, I thought that if you were smart and poor, you could write your own ticket to college. I was dead wrong.

A new study by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, where I serve as executive director, reveals that only 3 percent of students at our most selective colleges come from the 25 percent of families with the lowest incomes, while 72 percent come from the richest 25 percent of families."